Brenna14 Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 We've missed both the beginner agility and flyball classes at my trainer (whom I love!). I'm in a fairly rural area and the only other places that do training in my area are the local SPCA's that do not offer those types of classes. I'm still hoping to do some work with my two 2-year old boys this summer and was thinking I could at least start learning some techniques from a book (maybe?!?! ). Between that and perhaps a more advanced obedience and working on their recall, I'm hoping to keep them busy this summer. I'm currently doing a "bootcamp" of Nothing In Life is Free because they were getting bored with our routine and I wasn't really reinforcing a lot of their basic training skills. Then I'll make sure to be signed up EARLY for training classes next year. Sooooo, I saw in another post that the book "Agility Right from the Start" is good for agility. Any other suggestions on ways to get started or other training books on flyball, general obedience, or multi-dog households would be appreciated. I'm looking at books online and my amazon shopping cart is full!! I'd really like to get books that BC people think are useful. Actually, any good books on border collie mannerisms would be welcome too - we've had our boys for over 1.5 years but I'm really just trying to understand more about why they do what they do if that's even possible!!! Actually, my favorite thing lately has been watching my Royce figure out that in order for me to throw the ball for him, he has to be sitting in front of me. Enzo figured it out like a year ago because he LOVES his ball and will waste no time between bringing it to me and my throwing it haha. Thanks for all your replies! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SecretBC Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 IMO, those books are a good *supplement to* a class/instructor -- Not a substitution for. I never recommend that anyone completely new to agility try to "give it a go" on their own. There are too many ways to mess up and/or injure your dog. I have a friend who drives over two hours one way for her weekly agility classes. I am impressed by her dedication! I'm sure there are classes somewhere, you just have to dig to find them. Unfortunately, not all dog training centers put themselves out there and make it easy for people to find them, especially if they already have waiting lists for their classes. You can never go wrong with strengthening your dogs' basic obedience skills in the meantime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullet87 Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 I do flyball with my Heeler and am starting my Border Collie on it as well. I used to live near a team, but unfortunately now live in a really rural area where the closest team is in another state. When I was first starting out I got the book Flying High by Joan Payne. I found that it was a great book to read and learn about flyball before we joined our first team. Now that we live out in no mans land, I made a couple of jumps and a makeshift box to work my dogs on. Below are a couple of websites that are helpful with flyball related issues. http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ranch/2119/boxplan.htm http://www.flyballblog.com/lesson-1/ http://www.flyball.org/ http://www.u-fli.com/ Good Luck!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlasl Posted June 15, 2010 Report Share Posted June 15, 2010 would your trainer do some private lessons to get you up to speed and then you can join the group class? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaska Posted June 16, 2010 Report Share Posted June 16, 2010 If you're going it on your own, you'll be far better off with a video than a book. I strongly recommend Greg Derrett's Agiltiy Foundation Training DVD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Root Beer Posted June 16, 2010 Report Share Posted June 16, 2010 Sooooo, I saw in another post that the book "Agility Right from the Start" is good for agility. Any other suggestions on ways to get started or other training books on flyball, general obedience, or multi-dog households would be appreciated. I'm looking at books online and my amazon shopping cart is full!! I'd really like to get books that BC people think are useful. Whether you work with an instructor, or use DVD's, or go it on your own, I do recommend that you read at least the first section of this book if you can get your hands on it. This book is very user-friendly for a beginner, even though there is still quite a bit for the more experienced handler to glean from it. The opening section on use of reinforcement in Agility training is about the best I've ever read and the material in that section can be applied to just about any sport, or even just general pet training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brenna14 Posted June 16, 2010 Author Report Share Posted June 16, 2010 Thank you for all of your suggestions! I'm still looking in other locations for agility/flyball but if I can't find anything, I think our trainer has a more advanced obedience session coming up. Definitely going to try and find some of these books, videos, etc and check out the website links so I'm at least prepared for what I am trying to get myself into Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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